Do you think we’ll spend all 36 million in space next year?
No, but I'd rather keep our options open.
Signing Bratt for 1 year likely makes the price go up if we can get him extended next season. My high range for him was $8 million on a long term deal this year, but if he repeats or exceeds his performance from last year you're basically starting at $8 for him now.
Sharangovich is another major wildcard. I could see him doing anything from a 20-goal, 40-point season to 35-goal, 65-point season if he rides shotgun with Hughes all year and gets to be the triggerman on PP1 for once. If he puts up that kind of performance, how much does he cost at that point? Do you extend him long term or do a cheaper bridge deal?
If Wood is able to play this year and looks good, is he signing for much less than where he's at right now? Do we keep him? Do we keep Haula? What if Blackwood plays well and we have to give him $6 million a year like every other half-decent goalie gets now?
The reality is most of these things probably won't happen, but if they all did then it means we are A
probably a really good team that is entering a cup-competitive window, and B
eating through all that newfound space faster than we might have thought.
And if both of those are true, we probably want to try to sign one other short-term piece like a veteran winger to try to put us over the hump and take advantage of it while Luke and Nemec are on their ELCs. What if a "We'll give you Max Pacioretty for free.99" deal comes up but the catch is we need the space to offer for it.
Probably 92 times out of 100, we will not touch the cap ceiling next year. But those other 8 times, there's no point in buying out a decent player when it's not necessary to have some extra room this year, only to wish we had it next.
